May I Be Bewitched?

This morning brought a new day in a new week for a day at the Day Program. Al  was very tired this morning when I got him up. I know he didn’t sleep well last night after being so agitated and crying.

Once I had him up he ate breakfast. He had oatmeal with sugar and butter and a thin layer of peanut butter toast. He could not feed himself the oatmeal, so I helped him with that. He did eat his toast by himself.

After breakfast I washed him all up and got him dressed and ready to go. He wanted one of his vintage cars to take with him. It reminded me of when I used to do the “show and tell” at school. Do you remember those days?

He got on the bus and I came in and took my medicine and ate breakfast. I tried to answer some emails but the Hospice Nurse called and said she would be in to see Al in about an hour, so my time was up. I needed to get presentable.

We met Al just at his lunch time. He was finishing up. He was still having the side pain and the nurse thought maybe he had to go “number 2″ or it was a muscle from where he leans so badly in his chair.

After the meeting with him was over she and I spoke alone and I discussed my issues with her. I told her of the conversation he was having about death and blaming himself. I talked to her about the lack of wanting his pain medications.

She said that since he is mentally challenged he may not always make sound judgements so go ahead and give him one of his pain pills regularly three times a day along with his regular medications. I am to save the more powerful ones for visible pains. Along with his pain patch I hope this helps him. I just hate to see him suffer even though I know the reason he is trying to not take them is because he is wishing that now that he is home; somehow the disease would disappear.

She also said that she would contact the Spiritual Man in Hospice (minister) and have him talk to Al to try to help him accept what is truly happening. He did contact me and met Al at 3pm today.

When Al got off the bus he was very quiet. I assumed that he was thinking about the meeting with the minister earlier. But instead the first words out of his mouth was his side was hurting and he was at a  number five out of 10 in pain.

I asked him,”Did you tell staff that you were hurting?”

“Yes, but she said she isn’t allowed to give me any medicine.”

“Did she find someone who could?”

“No, I never got any. I am hurting, can you give me something to help the pain?”

I try not to jump to conclusions based on Al’s words alone as he does get confused at times. Yet I believe there is some truth in there somewhere. I receive a communication book nightly letting me know about Al’s day. It said that Al had a BM and that he had a good day.  So I sat down and wrote in it about what Al said and asked if this was true. I asked them to call me in the morning when they read my note.

I hope for Al’s sake that he is wrong. I can’t believe all the frustration we have had this weekend over pain medications and then he asked and didn’t get any. I will find out the truth in the morning, I can guarantee it.

The pain radiates into his daily living as he didn’t want any supper. I managed to get him to eat about half and he ate two cookies, chocolate chip, and he was done. I washed him up and he wanted to go to bed. I just checked on him and he is already asleep. I wish I could just zap my nose like Samantha on Bewitched and make everything all better for him.

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